“It’s yer muneeee!”
by digby
Federal deficit smaller than expected $92B in Oct. $652B in past 12 mths, ~4% GDP. FY ’16 budget will be ~balanced. pic.twitter.com/3Sod5UtvQA
— Robert Stein (@BobStein_FT) November 13, 2013
If the budget in FY 2016 is balanced, look for GOP to start talking about tax cuts. It certainly won’t be about reversing the draconian cuts of the past few years.
Here’s a little blast from the past.
Here’s what we believe. We don’t believe the surplus is the government’s money. We know the surplus is the people’s money. And we’re going to send some of that money back to the people who pay the bills.
(APPLAUSE)
It’s your money. It’s not the government’s money.
People all the time — the punditry says, “Well, the people don’t seem to want tax relief.” And I said, “But you missed the facts.” Today in America, people pay more in federal, state and local taxes than they do in food and clothing and housing. I want you to think about that.
The average family is working harder and longer hours and paying more in taxes than on the basic necessities to live. This isn’t right, folks.
We need to send some of your money back to the people who pay the bills. We ought to provide tax relief for everybody who pays taxes in America.”
As long as the right sets the terms of the economic debate it will always be about austerity and tax cuts. That’s how they roll:
Check out the new normal in Britain if you don’t believe me:
The government is to forge a “leaner, more efficient state” on a permanent basis, David Cameron has said as he signalled he had no intention of resuming spending once the structural deficit has been eliminated, a clear change to claims made after the last general election .
In a change of tack from saying in 2010 that he was imposing cuts out of necessity, rather than from “some ideological zeal”, the prime minister told the Lord Mayor’s banquet that the government has shown in the last three years that better services can be delivered with lower spending.
Cameron said that the government would press ahead with tackling the deficit after cutting it by a third. But he made clear that his party intended to go further.
“We are sticking to the task. But that doesn’t just mean making difficult decisions on public spending. It also means something more profound. It means building a leaner, more efficient state. We need to do more with less. Not just now, but permanently.”
The PM cited Michael Gove’s work in cutting administrative staff at the education department by 40% while 3,000 free schools and academies have been established. He also said the government has cut 23,000 administrative posts from the NHS while employing 5,000 more doctors.
He said: “So you can have a leaner, more efficient, more affordable state that actually delivers better results for the taxpayer.”
The remarks by the PM contrasted with his claim after the 2010 election. In his New Year’s message for 2011, issued on 31 December 2010, he said: “I didn’t come into politics to make cuts. Neither did Nick Clegg. But in the end politics is about national interest, not personal political agendas.
“We’re tackling the deficit because we have to – not out of some ideological zeal. This is a government led by people with a practical desire to sort out this country’s problems, not by ideology.”
He lied, of course.
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